PHA Supports Rep. Yeng Guiao’s 'Hands-only- CPR in Schools' Bill

Quezon City, July 22, 2015 -- The 1,600 strong organization of cardiovascular specialists and lay members collectively known as the Philippine Heart Association (PHA) found an ally in Rep. Joseller “Yeng” Guiao (1st District, Pampanga) and Atty. Darlene Berberabe, PAG-IBIG president and CEO.

PHA officers -- President Dr. Alex Junia, Director and Advocacy Committee chair Dr. Orlando Bugarin and PHA Council on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) chair Dr. Francis Lavapie, went to Congress today, to present the “PHA Hands-only CPR” Program for K to 12 students to Guiao, who recently filed House Bill 5891 or the mandatory CPR Training Bill and to Berberabe, who pledged to be a staunch advocate of the “Hands-only CPR” for the lay.

“I want to call it the Samboy Lim Bill in honor of the PBA Legend and allow it to sink into the consciousness of the Filipino people, and it will have a good number of co-authors,” said Guiao. The “PHA Hands-Only CPR (cardiac pulmonary resuscitation)” Program is close to the hearts of Guiao and Berberabe because Samboy Lim’s case is a wake-up call. Guiao is a friend of Lim and Berberabe.

Lim collapsed during a PBA Legends exhibition game at the Ynares Coliseum in Pasig City on November 28, 2014. No one in the venue knew how to perform CPR.

According to the PHA, CPR buys time. The victim who stops breathing has to be revived within four minutes because beyond that time, the loss of oxygen supply to the brain may lead to irreparable damage and this leads to comatose.

Bugarin said that 80% of sudden cardiac deaths occur at home and witnessed by relatives. These relatives usually do not know how to deliver basic CPR during such emergencies. Unfortunately, only 4% to 6% of these victims survive this ordeal because witnesses do not know how to deliver CPR.

“You don’t have to be a doctor to do Hands-only CPR. The life you save maybe that of a loved one.Hands-Only CPR is simple and can save lives. Even children from K to 12 can easily learn and do it,” said Lavapie.

Junia announced that “to help raise awareness, the PHA can come up with a short but high-impact CPR and AED demo video that can be loaded onto you tube and played in crowded public areas.” He added that “the PHA can provide free CPR and AED demos in schools, at the PBA, etc., to teach the proper way of pumping the heart, defibrillating the heart and to emphasize that these are done while waiting for the ambulance that will take the patient to the hospital.”